Cognitive Bias

Cognitive Bias

A cognitive bias is a bad mental habit. It's a way of thinking that might be very common and, on its surface, might even appear rational - but in fact it gets in the way of logical thinking. 认知偏差

Dunning-Krueger Effect

Less competent people have a tendency to believe that they know more than they actually do. Well-informed people usually have very low confidence in their own views, because they know enough to realize how complicated the world is. People that are not well informed are extremely confident that their views are correct, because they haven't learned enough to see the problems with those views. This is what Socrates meant when he said that true wisdom was "to know that I know nothing."

Confirmation Bias

One of the most important cognitive biases! This is a tendency to find evidence that supports what you already believe - or to interpret the evidence as supporting what you already believe. Changing your viewpoint is hard cognitive work, and our brains have a tendency to avoid doing it whenever possible, even when the evidence is stacked against us! the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories.

Pro-Innovation or Anti-Innovation Bias

Tendency to believe something is good (or bad) simply because it's new. In Western society we tend to overvalue innovation, while other societies (and many sub-cultures within the West, such as religious fundamentalists) overvalue tradition. Both biases are irrational: just because something is new or old doesn't mean it's going to be more or less beneficial. When we evaluate ideas, we should do it on the basis of their own merits, not simply how new or old the idea is.

Bandwagoning

Tendency to adopt the same beliefs as the people around you, or to assume that other people are making the right decision. If you live in a city with a subway, you may have seen bandwagoning at work - sometimes, a long line will form at one turnstile while the one next to it is completely free. Each new person shows up and just assumes that the second turnstile is broken, or else why would there be this disparity in the lines? But if no one decides to test this assumption, then the line will get longer and longer for no good reason! 盲从

Availability Heuristic

Tendency to attach too much weight to information that we happen to have available to us, even if we've done no systematic research. For example, people tend to believe that their personal anecdotes are evidence for how the world works. If your cousin's child developed autism after going through a standard round of vaccinations, you may believe that vaccinations cause autism even though science has conclusively shown that they don't. 可用性启发式

Outcome Bias

Tendency to evaluate a choice on the basis of its outcome rather than on the basis of what information was available at the time. For example, a family may decide to send their child to an expensive college based on good financial information available at the time. However, if the family later falls into financial hardship due to unforeseen circumstances, this decision will appear, in retrospect, to have been excessively risky and a bad choice overall.

Anchoring Bias

Tendency to focus too much on a single piece of information rather than all available information; this usually happens with either the first piece of information you received, the most recent information you received, or the most emotional information you received. 锚定偏见

Halo Effect

Tendency to perceive a person's attributes as covering more areas than they actually do. For example, if we know that a person has one type of intelligence (good at math, say) we tend to expect that they will show other kinds of intelligence as well (e.g. knowledge of history). [More broadly: the tendency to let one positive or negative trait or interaction influence our overall evaluation of a person.]

Mood-Congruent Memory Bias

Tendency to recall information that fits our current mood, or to interpret memories through that lens. When in a foul mood, we easily recall bad memories and interpret neutral memories as though they were bad. Leads to a tendency to think that the world is a sad, happy, or angry place when really it is only our mood.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to believe that your own successes are due to effort and innate talent, while others' successes are due to luck. Conversely, it's also the tendency to believe that your own failures are due to bad luck, while other people's failures are due to lack of effort and talent. Basically it means you give yourself credit while denying credit to others. This bias has broad effects in cross-cultural encounters.